2003 LCS Notes: Double 7s

I was going to put this on the index page, but it was getting long.

Impeach the Management

Grady Little lost the ALCS for the Bosox by leaving Pedro in too long, and now the Yankees are in the World Series. I have hereby turned my loyalty to the Florida Not-the-Yankees. The Florida Not-the-Yankees have, by virtue of the fact that they are not the American League's New York franchise, always been the lesser of two evils in my book. I will eagerly root for the Florida Not-the-Yankees and all their many non-pinstriped players. Let's go non-beneficiary-of-weird-socialism-capitalism-hybrid-baseball-economic-system team!

You suck harder than a nuclear-powered prostitute, Grady Little. It was obvious to everyone with a pair of eyes that Pedro was done. Augh. Now it's Microsoft vs. a team that drew fewer fans during the regular season than the Detroit Tigers, who only challenged for the title of Worst Team in Modern Baseball History. I hope the Marlins can win without me watching, 'cause I don't plan to. Augh!

Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down

The Red Sox are up 4-0 on the Yankees in the fourth as I type this, so I'm happy for now. A few LCS notes:

I wrote my piece about Pedro vs. Don Zimmer in Gene Weingarten's chat on Tuesday. Here's my stuff:

Beautiful Silver Spring, Md.: What in the name of Nolan Ryan was Pedro supposed to do when the 72-year-old bench coach of the Yankees comes running at him with fists ineffectually raised, Gene? Play matador with the aged bull? Show him the respect of duking it out with him and send him to the hospital for real instead of as a self-serving "precautionary" publicity stunt? Point out how vastly unprofessional it is for a coach, who is supposed to have a leveler head in these kinds of disputes than his players, to be charging one player specifically instead of trying to break up any altercations that may have already arisen?

Pedro shouldn't have thrown at Garcia and shouldn't have been gesturing like that, but Zimmer should know better, having been in baseball since 1 million B.C., than to come out after Pedro on the delusional pretense that he could take him. Pedro selected the least bad option available. No curse applies. Bosox in 7.

Weingarten's response could only have been written by a Yankee fan, but you can click the link and go see it if you share that personality defect. Elsewhere, Marc Fisher, normally levelheaded columnist for the Metro section, insisted that Pedro should be arrested for assault, but not Jeff Nelson, who attacked a Red Sox employee for cheering, which is apparently better than gently guiding to the ground someone who has just attempted to hit you with a left hook. Dumbass. That's what happens when you root for the Microsoft of baseball teams.

Roger just got knocked out! This is a great time to be an American.

Rehearse the Curse

For Cubbie fans, only a bizarre cause of defeat will do. Well, not all Cubbie fans. But a bunch, certainly, and those people are the people presently blaming Steve Bartman for the Cubbie defeat. Bartman's, um, intervention was certainly a boneheaded miscue and worthy fodder for hilarious expletive-laden graphics such as this one:

However! The fault of the three consecutive losses is none other than Dusty Baker's. Why did he keep Mark Prior in for 116 pitches when he had an 11-run lead in Game 2? Maybe if he had pulled Prior, Prior would have had more gas at the end of Game 6. Why, with the game on the line, did Dusty bring in Dave Fucking Veres? I don't even have the patience to catalogue all of Baker's sins, so I'm going to point you to analyses by Rany Jazayerli, Rob Neyer and Joe Sheehan. These gentlemen do it better than I could, but my conclusion is the same as theirs: Any trusty you place in Dusty is misplacedy. I hope the Cubs figure out what went wrong and get a real manager, but their experience with Don Baylor doesn't lead to much hope there.

Steve Bartman is the proverbial scapegoat who shouldn't have been admitted to the park nonetheless, but Dusty is the man who left the barn door open.

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